May 2013

...tyranny of the one per cent; North Korea, scary and scared; China’s space war; UK, in or out? France and Nato, Védrine to Debray; those problem EU borders; the Kurds’ changing reality; special report: do we need a basic minimum income? energy for people or profit? Gordon Ramsey’s tv coaching… supplement: the question of international solidarity… and more…

Some revelations come as little surprise. It’s not really news that some politicians love money and like to spend time with those who have lots of it. Or that they sometimes behave like a caste that is above the law. Or that the tax system favours the affluent, and that the free circulation of capital enables them to stash their cash in tax havens.
The disclosure of individual transgressions should lead to scrutiny of the system that created them. But in recent decades, the world has been (...)

The proponents of a basic minimum income — rather than a wage — think that its time may have come, now that technological progress means paid work is available to fewer people. Get over the initial absurdity of the idea, and it makes a novel sense

US complacency about China’s nuclear and space capabilities and intentions has been severely challenged. China has more and better missiles than thought, and plans well under way for a strong presence in space.

Britain’s prime minister David Cameron suggested earlier this year that the UK might vote on whether to remain in the EU. It’s a powerful deterrent at home and in the EU — unless, that is, he actually uses it.

The Kurdish region of northern Iraq is a boom zone with considerable economic and military clout; this has changed the alliances and expectations of Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iran. How far can this go?

The end of internal border controls after the EU enlargement of 2004 was meant to check a surge in nationalism. But in Hungary and Slovakia, as in Ukraine on the other side of the EU border, people still claim national identities.

Secours Populaire Français is working on several projects in the Kayes region with its local partner, the Association Malienne de Solidarité et de Coopération Internationale pour le Développement. Food and water self-sufficiency and women’s literacy are among these projects.